Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing released a press statement announcing the brand’s fall 2018 video campaign featuring actor and model Milla Jovovich. The video is set in a raw industrial space with Milla styled in a futuristic look from Balmain’s fall 2018 runway collection shown in Paris.

Milla awkwardly interacts with a bright colored, mid-century modern style chair- she sits in it, steps on it, moves it around; her movements are sometimes accompanied by grunts and groans. There isn’t much of a story, it is a conceptual art performance, true to current expectations, that comes off a bit random.

On watching Milla’s performance in the video Olivier shares,

Like every French kid growing up in the nineties, I was obsessed with The Fifth Element. So, obviously, there’s no need to tell me that Milla Jovovich is an incredible actor and a stunningly beautiful woman. I’ve long admired her strength, style and talents and I’ve often dreamed of finding a way to work with Milla on a Balmain project.

As Leeloo says in The Fifth Element, “boooooooom ba da booom.” Done. We had it. No need for complicated edits or even a soundtrack. I knew, as soon as I saw it, that all we needed to do was keep it simple and retain the focus on what Milla was doing in that incredible space. The strong, minimal style may be new for Balmain, but it perfectly compliments next fall’s styles. An Le’s pictures captured the same stark beauty that Jake caught on the video. I’m sure there’ll be more to come, but for now, I think we’ve got it.

Olivier Rousteing
26 July 2018 Paris

Here is the Balmain Fall 2018 Campaign video directed by Jake Nava:

*Side note: Why we embrace “madman” performance art.

View the full Balmain Fall 2018 campaign featuring Milla Jovovich, photographed by An Le:

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